Alumni Luncheon at Lancaster, PA

On Saturday, March 28, just over 100 people—alumni and guests from The King’s College at Briarcliff Manor and Newcastle, Delaware, and Northeastern Bible College—gathered at the Meadia Heights Golf Club in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

An opening prayer was given by Dr. Carolyn Carmichael (’58), the mother of Dr. Kimberly Carmichael Thornbury. Dr. Kenneth John (’59) introduced President Gregory Alan Thornbury, who spoke about the work and vision of the college.

In his address, President Thornbury stressed the continuity of vision from the college’s founding days to the present, explaining that while the mission field has moved from full-time Christian service to the shaping institutions of culture, the goal of reaching the world for Christ has not changed. Thornbury highlighted several instances of how current students are making this mission bear fruit and serving New York City, including the following: King’s students descended in droves on the run-down facilities of the New York City Gospel Mission and took care of almost all of its cleanup and demolition needs during the first annual King’s Day of Service; and, for probably the first time in decades, a King’s student and a Christian is employed at Barneys, an avant-garde NYC fashion house.

Thornbury acknowledged that alumni outreach from the new campus has not always been very robust, and exhorted the assembled alumni to join in common cause and solidarity with the work now taking place in New York City. He also used the occasion to announce the launch of a new theology major at King’s, beginning in the fall of 2016, and a project to catalog and record the history of the college. Details about both of these initiatives will be announced in coming weeks.

After Thornbury’s address, Rick Millham (’90), former president of the TKC Alumni Association, led the guests in a guessing game of TKC trivia, and Emily Schatz (’11) spoke about her work researching the history of The King’s College. In closing, Alex Turoczi (’67 and, jointly with Sallie Edwards Turoczi, 2014 Alumnus of the Year) prayed for the college and those assembled…but not before Jim O’Bryon (’64) and Tom Lingenfelter (’61) made a surprise presentation to President Thornbury of a framed Youth on the March poster signed by Percy Crawford.

Alumni from almost every decade of the College’s existence attended the luncheon, along with a strong Northeastern Bible College turnout. All alumni are encouraged to attendHomecoming this fall (stay tuned for details!), and invited to attend other significant events in the life of the college as able, including commencement on May 16. For information on these and other future events, please follow King’s on Twitter and sign up for the alumni newsletter.